France

France’s Klepierre printed a €500m 10 year trade on Thursday, with bankers still waiting for a euro issuing corporate to take the step and stretch maturities in the currency further.

It took a trim of the offering size and issuer’s leverage ratio to sway high yield investors, but French glass packaging manufacturer Verallia finally priced its new bond on Thursday.

Elis, the French bed linen and laundry company, has completed its oversubscribed €324m rights issue to finance the reduction of its leverage after buying competitors Indusal in Spain and Levebras in Brazil.

The French bank’s recent changes to its equity capital markets division show it is serious about growing its European ECM business outside France, writes David Rothnie.

Consumer goods company Unilever priced a €1.2bn dual tranche bond on Wednesday that came partially inside the French government curve, as investors scrabble for perceived haven assets amid sharply deteriorating market sentiment.

French bottle maker Verallia served on Wednesday an updated version of the offering it had to pull in October, when its shareholder Apollo disagreed over the terms with investors. The deal is now smaller, and the issuer less leveraged.

The rise of populism in Europe has claimed its first capital markets victims. Brace yourself for more.

Two public sector borrowers had very contrasting fortunes with no-grow three year dollar bond issues on a volatile Tuesday.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has pulled a three year dollar deal that was expected to be priced today.

French banks are expected to look closely at opportunities for issuance in the coming month, senior non-preferred bonds have started widening on the back of fresh election jitters in Europe, and opportunities could be limited as the French vote draws nearer.

The public sector dollar market looks set to pick up the pace of a record breaking January after last week’s slowdown in issuance, with two borrowers on screen for Tuesday business at press time on Monday and more issuance expected later in the week.

Crédit Agricole tapped its 20 year covered bond on Monday at a spread that was almost twice as tight compared to OATs as the original issue. The success of the tap shows that the German insurance firms that bought the increase are focused on other metrics than the cost compared to government bonds.